The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-12-22
THE CITY OF NANTES.
A PEOPLE WHOSE COSTUMES ARE
OF ECCENTRIC DESCRIPTION.
A Refuge from the Artificial Life at tho
French Capital--A Homelike Meal Mt u
Hotel-Prineipal business street-A
Royalist's Opinion OF the City

Royalist's Opinion OF the City
Nantes takes certain character from
the sea, from the fishermen and from all
the queer types of humanity who dwell
along the coast of this department and OF
Morbihan well on up toward Brest. The
costumes of these people are of the most
eccentric description, so much SO that it is
said that nowhere else in France can there
be seen such variety, Some are strik-
ingly picturesque. There is the peasant
woman, for instance, whose business it is
to cultivate early potatoes In the sand
near Noirmousler and bring them to mar
ket She wears skirt coming just below
the knees, n small cap, some sort of apron,
checked CT otherwise, and has the
foot, ankle and calf entlrely exposed, or
shoes or sabots neatly polished and stock
ings closely fitting and often of intricate
pattern. The shoes and hosiery are their
special weakness, and II is not rare to see
among therl well made foot and ankle
The entire costume is commonly in sober
colors and neatly kept, On the contrary,
you see little girls with long skirts COM
ing to the soles of the shoe, who look rs if
they had just stepped from one of Van
dykes portraits.
"
Morbihan, We have the low crowned,
round topped hat of We rstr e.. s-ra,. ~
felt bound with velve vnry aaitY.
rs the French woul, say .u#- L--4
jacket is something .a- 1aiuU HFos
exterior garment OF oar anCs# Fs EG
Seventeenth century, gNE NA
same and gay with ne" 6. ns0"s
| thickly set that the Hr'rUa ems az
other The collar of the snlru ~ rs urulu
as ships mainsal. 1t is open in front
and rises stinly up behind the head, serv-
| ing as a background to u face that is the
picture of innocence and as quaint as the
| costume itself.
1t is a pleasant relief to get away from
| the highly artificial life and the highly ar
| tificial articles of food and drink at Paris
| even to stupid and not over clearly place
| like Nantes The country offers its treas
ures more generously than the city. 1t is
pleasant to know that the Wines If they
are not Clos Vougcot, Pomard Chateau
Lefite or Chateau Yqueu, are at least all
they pretend to be; that you are near the
place where people produce their own but
ter and lay their own eggs; where they
even put the butter on the table and sell
their milk at four cents n quart from the
wagons in the street and at the corner
groceries. 1t Is really with homelike
feeling that you sit down to breakfast or
dinner In hotel in a town in Anjou, or
at the hotel ut Nantes on which be-
slowed my humble patronage. The still
ness that pervades the dining room is SOL
emn. You hear two or three flies buzzing
behind the lace curtains that drape the
windows. You look up to the ceiling not
painted by Michael Angelo, but by some
unimmortalized local fresco painter, in
imitation of the sky. You don't remem-
Der ever to have seen exactly such shades
of blue in the armament before. But no
matter. The chandeliers are attached to
the ceiling with blue ribbons painted fat
thereon, the ends drawn out sideways and
held in the beaks of doves, the species
and the school of art being alike unfa-
miliar.
Into the room steal furtively from time
to time representatives of the Nantals
bourgeoise-solid, solemn, funereal-who
TRANQUILITY partake of the several courses
and then steal away as stealthily as they
entered. Perhaps there enters whole
Breton family - father, mother, sons,
daughters and bonne--all of whom make
the sign of the cross before taking their
places. Their dress is quiet and their
manners almost as reverential as if they
were in church. The repast is served by
the mature garcons-one gray haired
whom you seem family to recollect as
having seen in the opera of ''The Hugue-
nots" Their duty is performed decorously
and entirely in keeping with the sur
roundings. There is none Of bewardage
so often seen ut French tables. The
cuisine is rather remarkable for its pro-
fusion than its fine quality, thus reversing
the Partisan rule, Some dishes are even
left on the table where persons can help
themselves. Nothing could be more
I'M Partisan. The butter Is of char
acter to attract attention. There are
perhaps twenty persons at table com
paratively few persons come to Naltes)
and there are four rolls of golden
butter distributed along the table,
each weighing at least pound, and, like
everything else offered you, it is "a discre-
ton" Then you drink, if you are dis
posed, whole bottle of white or red wine.
The hotel is, believe, the best in Nantes,
and your breakfast and dinner cost you
together only five francs a day, while a
good room costs only three francs more.
In coming from Cholet to Nantes made
the ACQUAINTANCE of q young lawyer OF
| l. u loy W vi vi eha poAAo1Soi
preference and a most charming and in
tellgent travelling companion. He said to
, me, NANTES is vile de luxe" As
have already remarked, this Is not init
mated to the stranger. There ia nothing
in tho houses or shops that would indicate
it. Then as met him in the evening he
, conducted me through what he said was
the principal business street.-the only
business street in fact-a thoroughfare
{ narrow and crooked like the rest, half q
mile in length and having on either side
) commonplace shops, badly lighted and
with poor displays Of goods in the win
dows. There were no carriages, but ii
was filled with crowd of promenaders
{ walking purposely to and fro and look.
ing istlessly into the uninterestine
windows, rs l have seen them in
the smaller towns Of Italy or else.
where in Europe, There was nowhere
else to go, theatres being closed and sum
} mer amusements conspicuous by their
absence. The rich were at the watering
places; the poor were amusing themselves
in low drinking houses, such us are seen
in the pictures Of Iemers and Steen, OF
, types that are universal and have been fol
800 years.
There are, however, at Nantes things
that arc solid, substantial and elegant in
' the way of art and architecture. The
cathedral and other churches are among
the finest in France, and there are statues
f of kings and other celebrities in them, OF
here and there in avenues and streets
about tho city. There is library of 100,-
900 volumes, and the museum of pains
ings and statuarF, the finest in France
outside OF Paris and Versailles, It is well
l worth a visit. went to the castle, which
is not SO massive and interesting as that